Conference Agenda

This study proposes a methodological approach for examining how a creative vision emerging in long-term creative practice becomes recognized, questioned, and embodied through developmental processes. Particular attention is given to intra-personal dialogue involving non-verbal creative artifacts, which remains underexplored within dialogical self research.

The study applies Auto-TEM (Autobiographical Trajectory Equifinality Modeling) to the author’s creative life from early childhood (age 5) to adulthood (age 40). By focusing on negotiations with contradictions at key turning points, the trajectory is divided into phases. Transitions of the dialogical self are analyzed through TEM diagrams to explore how I-positions and voices emerge, interact, and reorganize across time.

Building on Konopka et al.’s composition-work research—including efforts to access implicit and “unspeakable” I-positions through material composition—this study introduces a methodological variation in which creative artifacts themselves are treated analytically as symbolic voices. Rather than externalizing inner states, creative works are approached as mediating elements that participate in dialogical positioning processes.

The analysis suggests that pre-conceptual creative experiences received with strong affective impact sustain dialogical tension across temporal and contextual shifts. Such experiences sediment as enduring questions that reappear through subsequent creative practice, shaping the emergence and activation of I-positions while contributing to the ongoing individuation of creative vision.

Overall, the study demonstrates how combining dialogical self theory with Auto-TEM makes it possible to investigate creative vision formation as an ongoing process of embodied positioning and dialogical individuation.